Abuja- The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union of Nigeria (COEASU) has said the ongoing reforms in the education sector at all levels should be sustained to enhance development.
The National Secretary of the Union, Mr Nuhu Ogirima, said this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja
He said that the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) had introduced the early childhood education programme in a new curriculum to improve the sector.
“The NCCE has come up with package of reform programmes; one of it is the Early Childhood Education. Reform in any aspect of life is a welcome development.
“But when you look at the education sector of our dear country, you’ll observe that there are some loopholes in it.
“Again when you look at the scope of reform you begin to ask yourself do we have the personnel, the manpower, the resource persons?
“Because the essence of a reform is to achieve a particular goal but you will be shooting yourself in the foot if you are introducing something new or reforming an existing thing you don’t think of the sustainability.
“That is the concern to us as a union, the sustainability of the reform so that the desired objective will be achieved at the end of the day.
“On the ultimate, we are urging government to make sure that, if these reforms are to be sustained, it takes care of all those loopholes, the sustainability has to be taken into consideration.
“They have to train the personnel, they have to put measures in place as a matter of urgent necessity, they should try to train those that are interested in the long term.’’
On the three-month ultimatum given to government to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and COEASU, he said response had been positive.
He told NAN that series of meetings had been ongoing with the Minister of Education Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, and some resolutions had been made to address the issue.
According to him, a committee has been set up in the course of the meetings to proffer solutions and that a draft report is ready for further transmission to the government.
Ogirima gave the assurance that there would be no strike if the actions taken so far by the minister in resolving the issues were sustained.(NAN)
